SEAN: Last week of August. Should be small, right? Hah. So much Kodansha digital. So much Seven Seas. Yen Press runoff stuff. It’s huge.
ASH: Let’s jam!
We begin with Cross Infinite World, who have another light novel for us with The Eccentric Master and the Fake Lover. Despite the somewhat salacious copy about bodily fluids, I think this is a woman-oriented romance title.
Dark Horse has the 18th and final volume of Neon Genesis Evangelion: The Shinji Ikari Raising Project. Don’t worry, the omnibuses are still going.
ASH: I’m glad that Dark Horse has found ways to keep things in print, but I’ll admit the publisher’s printing (and reprinting) schedule can be frustrating.
SEAN: Ghost Ship has a 6th volume of To-Love-Ru Darkness.
J-Novel Club has two debuts. Seirei Gensouki: Spirit Chronicles looks to combine both reincarnation isekai AND the magical academy sort of book.
Sorcerous Stabber Orphen may sound familiar to those with long memories – its anime adaptation aired exactly 20 years ago, and the novels are even older than that. It’s a big ol’ epic fantasy.
J-Novel Club also has a 7th If It’s For My Daughter, I’d Even Defeat a Demon Lord, which I believe catches us up with Japan.
Kodansha does have a few print titles next week. There’s Again!! 4, Aho-Girl 8, and the 4th Battle Angel Alita: Mars Chronicle.
MICHELLE: Yay for more Again!!.
ASH: I’m excited to read more, too!
ANNA: Triple yay!
SEAN: The majority of stuff is digital, though. Technically there’s no debut, but Kodansha is releasing digital versions of Peach Girl 1-18. These are the old Tokyopop editions ported over, I think, rather than a new translation, but that’s fine. Enjoy some classic overwrought shoujo!
MICHELLE: Oh, neat! I didn’t know they were doing that. That said, I have a big stack of TOKYOPOP editions that I never read, so… I would like to see them finish Ueda’s Papillon, which Del Rey had been publishing.
ANNA: Yeah, Papillon was good!
SEAN: And there’s Ace of the Diamond 14, Defying Kurosaki-kun 3, Hotaru’s Way 6, I Want to Hold Aono-kun So Badly I Could Die 3, Is Kichijoji the Only Place to Live? 2, Liar x Liar 5, and The Quintessential Quintuplets 3. Phew!
MICHELLE: I regret that I haven’t managed to read Is Kichijoji yet, but still, yay for more sports manga!
SEAN: But wait, here comes Seven Seas, and they’re burying us too. Debuts first. Cutey Honey: the Classic Collection is another deluxe hardcover which collects the original Cutey Honey manga from 1973. It should be complete in one omnibus, and is a must-read.
ASH: Cutie Honey A Go Go! was a lot of fun, so I’m looking forward to reading the original.
SEAN: The other new title is Ultra Kaiju Humanization Project, which is a Young Champion series that imagines an alien invasion that needs Japanese monsters to save the day! There’s just one problem. The monsters are high school girls. This sounds fascinatingly wretched.
And we also have (deep breath) Captain Harlock: Dimensional Voyage 5, Citrus 8, Holy Corpse Rising 5, How to Build a Dungeon 4, Magical Girl Apocalypse 15, Monster Girl Doctor light novel 3, and My Monster Secret 12. There’s a lot of stuff in that list I hate, so I am pleased it ends with My Monster Secret, which is hilarious.
ASH: I need to catch up on Dimensional Voyage, especially since the original Captain Harlock is now being released, too.
SEAN: Vertical Comics has a 2nd Chi’s Sweet Adventures, for all your cute cat needs.
If you prefer snakes, why not read the latest Monogatari novel from Vertical, Inc? Otorimonogatari: Decoy Tale gives us the story of Nadeko Sengoku’s encounter with a snake aberration, but who’s controlling whom here?
Yen Press also has a few titles that didn’t come out last week. Digitally we have Corpse Princess 18, IM: Great Priest Imhotep 7, and Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun 7.
Yen On has the 2nd novel of better-than-it-sounds fantasy Reborn as a Vending Machine, I Now Wander the Dungeon.
And lastly, Yen debuts Final Fantasy: Lost Stranger, where a Square Enix employee and his sister die and are reborn in the world of Final Fantasy. Yes, isekai has finally met Final Fantasy. Can we cope with this?
Are you coping with all this manga? What are you getting?
MICHELLE: SuBLime has a small number of digital-only series and my very favorite, The Night Beyond the Tricornered Window, has a fifth volume coming out! I’m snagging that for sure.
MJ: Oh, hey! I need to catch up with that!!
ASH: One of the titles I really wish was getting a print release!
SEAN: Whoops! Pretend I mentioned that up above.